Three Meals a Day?

Posted by Ray on March 13, 2016 in Health | 0 comments

It appears that the French are still attached to their habit of three daily meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner. In 2010, while the gastronomic habits of the French were included by UNESCO in the list of Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, a team of researchers wondered if the French gastronomic model of three meals a day has always been the standard. To find concrete evidence, scientists from the Pierre and Marie Curie University / INSERM) studied the eating habits of nearly 3,000 adults living in Paris and its suburbs.

Published in March in the journal PLOS ONE, the study shows that 75% of people, mostly living in families, the elderly and the students, follow the sacrosanct three meals habit. They do not miss their petit-déjeuner, déjeuner and dîner.

The Urban Pattern

The remaining 25% of the population miss one or even two meals each day. These are individuals who because of professional obligations or lack of education or low income are compelled to do with less number of meals in a day. ‘These are people who are out of sync and just eat one or two meals a day, often alone in front of the television,’ said Julien Riou, co-author of the study. This group also includes active young people whose urban lifestyle influences the variability of their meals. ‘This behavior is potentially destined to disappear with age and the arrival of children,’ observed the researchers.

Despite the constraints of the professional world, the crisis in the traditional family model and the accelerated pace of life, particularly in cities, the cultural practice of three meals a day seems firmly rooted in the life of the Parisians. According to the researchers of this study, France is one of the last countries where meals are synchronized, where almost everyone eats at the same time. It’s a little less so for the Nordic nations, in Belgium or Italy, and much less in the United States.

A Fairly Recent Model

This well-known model has not always existed and may not continue forever. Indeed, texts dating from the 15th century show that at that time people had only two meals a day: a dinner that was consumed in the late morning and a supper eaten late afternoon. It is from the 19th century that the current thrice-a-day eating model gradually infiltrated all levels of society, through the school to the army and the hospital.

If this group of researchers plans to conclude that the present habit of eating will continue among the French, they need to continue their study for a longer period to assure us that any deviations from the present habit are ephemeral. So the study will continue this year with another 3000 new participants and their eating habits.